[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1580 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        S.1580

                     One Hundred Fifteenth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE SECOND SESSION

         Begun and held at the City of Washington on Wednesday,
           the third day of January, two thousand and eighteen


                                 An Act


 
To enhance the transparency, improve the coordination, and intensify the 
    impact of assistance to support access to primary and secondary 
education for displaced children and persons, including women and girls, 
                         and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
    This Act may be cited as the ``Protecting Girls' Access to 
Education in Vulnerable Settings Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
    Congress finds the following:
        (1) As of June 2018, more than 68,000,000 people have been 
    displaced by disasters and conflicts around the world, the highest 
    number recorded since the end of World War II, of which more than 
    25,000,000 people are refugees.
        (2) More than half of the population of refugees are children 
    and, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for 
    Refugees, nearly 4,000,000 school-aged refugee children lack access 
    to primary education.
        (3) Education offers socioeconomic opportunities, psychological 
    stability, and physical protection for displaced people, 
    particularly for women and girls, who might otherwise be vulnerable 
    to severe forms of trafficking in persons (as such term is defined 
    in section 103(9) of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 
    (22 U.S.C. 7102(9)), child marriage, sexual exploitation, or 
    economic disenfranchisement.
        (4) Displaced children face considerable barriers to accessing 
    educational services and, because the duration of such displacement 
    is, on average, 26 years, such children may spend the entirety of 
    their childhood without access to such services.
        (5) Despite the rising need for educational services, as of 
    2016, less than two percent of humanitarian aid was directed toward 
    educational services.
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
    It is the sense of Congress that--
        (1) it is critical to ensure that children, particularly girls, 
    displaced by conflicts overseas are able to access educational 
    services because such access can combat extremism and reduce 
    exploitation and poverty; and
        (2) the educational needs of vulnerable women and girls should 
    be considered in the design, implementation, and evaluation of 
    related United States foreign assistance policies and programs.
SEC. 4. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
    It is the policy of the United States to--
        (1) partner with and encourage other countries, public and 
    private multilateral institutions, and nongovernmental and civil 
    society organizations, including faith-based organizations and 
    organizations representing parents and children, to support efforts 
    to ensure that displaced children have access to safe primary and 
    secondary education;
        (2) work with donors to enhance training and capacity-building 
    for the governments of countries hosting significant numbers of 
    displaced people to design, implement, and monitor programs to 
    effectively address barriers to such education; and
        (3) coordinate with the governments of countries hosting 
    significant numbers of displaced people to--
            (A) promote the inclusion of displaced children into the 
        educational systems of such countries; and
            (B) in circumstances in which such inclusion is difficult, 
        develop innovative approaches to providing safe primary and 
        secondary educational opportunities, such as encouraging 
        schools to permit children to be educated by extending the 
        hours of schooling or expanding the number of teachers.
SEC. 5. UNITED STATES ASSISTANCE TO SUPPORT EDUCATIONAL SERVICES FOR 
DISPLACED CHILDREN.
    (a) In General.--The Secretary of State and the Administrator of 
the United States Agency for International Development are authorized 
to prioritize and advance ongoing efforts to support programs that--
        (1) provide safe primary and secondary education for displaced 
    children;
        (2) build the capacity of institutions in countries hosting 
    displaced people to prevent discrimination against displaced 
    children, especially displaced girls, who seek access to such 
    education; and
        (3) help increase the access of displaced children, especially 
    displaced girls, to educational, economic, and entrepreneurial 
    opportunities, including through the governmental authorities 
    responsible for educational or youth services in such host 
    countries.
    (b) Coordination With Multilateral Organizations.--The Secretary 
and the Administrator are authorized to coordinate with the World Bank, 
appropriate agencies of the United Nations, and other relevant 
multilateral organizations to work with governments in other countries 
to collect relevant data, disaggregated by age and gender, on the 
ability of displaced people to access education and participate in 
economic activity, in order to improve the targeting, monitoring, and 
evaluation of related assistance efforts.
    (c) Coordination With Private Sector and Civil Society 
Organizations.--The Secretary and the Administrator are authorized to 
work with private sector and civil society organizations to promote 
safe primary and secondary education for displaced children.
SEC. 6. REPORT.
    The Secretary and the Administrator shall include in the report 
required under section 7 of the READ Act (division A of Public Law 115-
56; 22 U.S.C. 2151c note) a description of any primary or secondary 
educational services supported by programs for natural or manmade 
disaster relief or response that specifically address the needs of 
displaced girls.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.